SALT LAKE CITY — The National Fire Prevention Association dedicates this week, Oct. 6-12, to raising awareness about fire prevention. Utah first responders are also asking people to be cautious as we head into another warm, dry week.

“We’re at 280 acres which is actually spread out over an incline and a pretty steep environment,” said Jon Smith, a public information officer for North Tooele Fire District.

Saturday afternoon, the North Tooele Fire District got the call to a wildfire on the west side of the Oquirrh Mountain range.

“No structures were threatened, no evacuations were issued, but it was really, really dry conditions and we’ve been dealing with record high temperatures — not just for the month of August, but really all summer long. We’ve had extended periods without rain,” said Smith.

The cause is still under investigation, but Smith said it was human-caused. He said they hope to have the fire contained by Monday morning.

This is not the only wildfire the North Tooele Fire District is battling.

“We do work with other agencies, and the Yellow Lake Fire is of course a much bigger event,” Smith said. “People have this misnomer that fire season is over when the summer months have passed, and nothing could be further from the truth. September and October are very busy fire months.”

As of Sunday evening, the Yellow Lake Fire in eastern Wasatch County had grown to more than 15,000 acres, with more than 450 personnel on the ground.

“We do still have hotter than normal temperatures, 15° above average. The winds are still variable and up to 10 to 15 mph,” said Brian Trick, the public information officer for the Yellow Lake Fire.

Emergency crews are asking residents and recreators in certain areas to leave for their own safety.

“The West Fork of the Duchesne River, as well as the North Rork, are under a mandatory evacuation. The Granddaddy Lakes area is under a ready order, as well as the town of Hanna,” said Trick.

While officials are still looking into what caused the Yellow Lake Fire and the West Oquirrh Fire, they believe they were both caused by people.

“We also understand it’s very cold at night, and so if you’re a recreator or are a hunter and you are not in a closure order or an evacuated area and you are just recreating, campfires are permitted,” Trick said. “But it’s that idea: make sure it’s dead out, so cold to the touch.”

Officials say fire season is not over, so the Utahns need to always be mindful.

“As we saw the last two days, we had some explosive fire growth and it would just be very difficult to track folks,” Trick said. “It’s for their safety as well as firefighters and law enforcement officers who might have to go find them and help them.”

According to Marc Stein, the New York Knicks tried hard to get Walker Kessler from the Utah Jazz before making the trade for Karl-Anthony Towns.

From Stein’s substack:

Before coming to terms on a blockbuster swap with Minnesota for Karl-Anthony Towns mere days before the start of training camp, New York made multiple trade runs at Utah’s Walker Kessler to fill its well-chronicled void at center, league sources say.

It is believed that Utah wanted at least two future first-round picks for Kessler … after the Knicks had exhausted much of their remaining cache of draft picks in the trade with Brooklyn for Bridges.

This is more clarification on the trade rumors we had seen before involving Walker Kessler. Kessler had a very strong rookie season but a disappointing second season where he lost his starting spot to John Collins.

All that said, Kessler still has impressive rim protection numbers and is obviously still very young and there’s no reason he can’t continue to improve.

It’s interesting to see these rumors that are now coming out with the dust now having cleared. It does make sense because, with all these rumors, we learn the asking price for players after the fact. It certainly seems that if a team out there wants a young rim-protecting center, they could have Kessler for two first-round picks. On top of that, it’s clear this was somewhat recent. Will we see more of these offers for Kessler now that other teams are aware of the asking price?

SALT LAKE CITY — Utah’s fall season has officially begun, but people don’t have much longer to view the fall-colored trees in the state before the leaves drop.

During the latest KSL Outdoors Show, two photographers shared the best locations for last minute fall drives in Utah. Those guest speakers were photographers Mark Wade and Bob Grove, who travel around Utah taking photos of the state’s scenery, animals and their off-road adventures.

The first place Wade mentioned for fall drives is Cottonwood Canyon off of 70th South in Salt Lake City. Wade said he was able to see bright fall colors during his drive, plus a little extra surprise.

“On the way up, we had a moose cross the road, right by us. Beautiful… that was about halfway up the canyon” Wade said. “And then, we got up to the Donut Falls area. And the leaves, the Aspens were just gorgeous all across the whole mountain side.”

According to Wade, now is the perfect time to go see the fall colors in Utah.

“The Aspens up high and the Scrub Oak down below is turning red and orange,” Wade said. “It’s the perfect time to [drive] Nebo Loop.”

Wade said some of his favorite southern Utah fall drives included Boulder Mountain and Capitol Reef National Park. As for Northern Utah, Wade mentioned the region around Bear Lake and Logan Canyon.

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Grove lives in the southern parts of Utah, where most people don’t expect to see a lot of fall colors.

 “Around Brian Head, Cedar Breaks and Tushar Mountains area, [the colors] come out the same time as they do up north,” Grove said. “Usually they peak, you know the end of September, first part of October. Down in the lower areas, like at Zion, we’re not going to see [the fall colors] until the end of October or early November.” 

Grove said his favorite locations for last minute fall drives included Highway 143, Navajo Lake, Highway 14 and Kents Lake.

According to Grove, the high-country areas are already in peak, and those fall colors won’t last much longer.

Tim Hughes co-hosts Utah’s Morning News on KSL NewsRadio and is the host of ‘KSL Outdoors.’ Tune in to KSL NewsRadio every Saturday from 6 a.m. to 8 a.m. to hear more from ‘KSL Outdoors.’

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